Combat style balance.

[IAmJacksOpinion]

That perceived difference could be caused by a lot of things though... One thing is that etwoers are frequently strength heavy characters. Not always, but frequently. Rangers and Assassins have a pretty good reason to choose dual wield, and they have a pretty good reason to prioritize AGI.  On the other hand, that dwarf warrior you hate to spar with in the Byn definitely prioritized his STR. For him, etwoing is almost secondary to the fact that he could pull an argosy with his pecks, but it is the style he uses to wipe the floor with you none-the-less.

If etwo's damage increase works the way it does in D&D (not saying it does, but its possible) it's a multiplier. In D&D you get a static 1.5 x STR added to your damage. So your strength bonus is 0, you got no extra damage. If your str bonus is +4, you get SIX damage added to your attacks across the board.  So it's entirely within the realm of possibility that etwo is more effective for strong characters than for weak ones.

The other thing I've noticed is that your current HP seems to effect combat performance. I've had fights between 2 highly skilled warriors where we would both parry/block everything for the first 2 minutes of the fight straight, then all of a sudden one of us would land a hit on the other and the fight would be over within the next 30 seconds. Etwo = higher damage = the one hit you land nerfs your opponent more than it would if it were one-handed.

Again, I think everything's pretty even on the whole, but I personally usually take etwo over dual wield for my warriors.

[Inks]

I like how they are all useful for different things.

[Hauwke]

I am probably wrong with this but here is how I see it:
Dual wield gives:
2 attacks when you attack theoretically upping your dps which can be upped by high agi or high str I guess.
It also gives (I think at least) 2 rolls to parry or a significant boost to it one or the other im really unsure.

Sword and board gives:
It gives you a parry chance and a block chance. Basically giving you a theoretically 'doubled' defense.

Etwo gives:
As that one guy earlier said, I think it gives a multiplier to damage from strength and/or skill.
And I think the helpfile mentions base defence up maybe... I forget.


My favourite is sword/axe/club/spear or knife and board simply because I hate dying in any kind of game and generally prefer to be the tank since losing hp pisses me off when I am taking huge hits in a game.
That being said I can definatly see the reason for a dwarf/mul/halfgiant going etwo or even dual wield. They have  the strength to wear armor and the hp to really not need it. Etc etc etc game is good seems unbalanced but I think it is balanced.

[Delirium]

If you take some time and go through the helpfiles for each combat style, it lists out very plainly the benefits and negatives of each.

The rest can easily be found out through IG experimentation.

Characters will have the styles they prefer for IC reasons - the assortment of combat styles we have now is flexible enough to cover most any preferences.

My only wish was that smaller weapons (swords, knives, axes, clubs) had a bonus in city environments, knives especially, and larger weapons (spears, staves, etc) a bonus in hunting scenarios.

Mounted combat should require weapons at are at least medium-sized... using knives while on inix back is a hilarious mental picture.

Still, what we've got now works pretty well, and allows for lots of flexibility in roleplayed and coded combat styles.

[Armaddict]

Mounted combat should require weapons at are at least medium-sized... using knives while on inix back is a hilarious mental picture.

I've had thoughts of this as well, with recent discussion on it.  Certain weapons being required to be able to fight from beetle-back, otherwise you suffer a large penalty to the number of attacks you get, due to having to wait for extreme proximity.

Sword and board gives:

Also worth noting...I have not seen the code, so I cannot say for certain, but there has, with my warriors, been a strong correlation between bash success and having a shield equipped.

[Hauwke]

The bash increase is possibly like that. I doubt it is a direct +bashing-nerds but still, In my mind the bonus (if any) would apply in the sense that you can use the added weight of the shield.

[IAmJacksOpinion]

Also worth noting...I have not seen the code, so I cannot say for certain, but there has, with my warriors, been a strong correlation between bash success and having a shield equipped.

Oh, no doubt about it dude.